Nickel prices kept increasing yesterday (May 6). The futures price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose by US$41/ton yesterday, closing at US$17,937/ton, and the spot price also hiked by US$39.75/ton to US$17,912.25/ton.
The current average nickel price of this month has reached US$17,809/ton so far, higher than the US$16,507/ton in April.
Meanwhile, LME’s market inventory of nickel continued sliding by 720 tons to 260,508 tons. The cumulative decrease in May has reached 816 tons so far.
According to market participants, nickel prices kept climbing as the US dollar continued weakening, China’s tight pure nickel inventory triggered supply concerns, and demand for nickel was optimistic.
Therefore, in the short term, nickel prices were expected to keep stable.

In the US, the imbalance between the supply and demand of stainless steel flat products caused by the epidemic will intensify in the coming months. In this market, severe shortages are unlikely to be resolved in the short term.
It was expected that demand will further recover from now to the second half of 2021. Driven by construction and important infrastructure investment, the supply chain will bring greater pressure.